Publication details
Opinion on Benchmarking Access to Healthcare in the EU
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Monograph |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | in the EU Summary. Faced with growing evidence that some groups within European Union Member States have been unable to achieve access to necessary healthcare, the European Union has committed to action to reduce levels of unmet need, most recently as an element of the European Pillar of Social Rights. In response, the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health has been requested to propose a series of quantitative and qualitative benchmarks for assessing progress in reducing unmet need for healthcare and to discuss means by which EU funds or other mechanisms might be used to improve access to healthcare. A first step is to define need for healthcare. This is the ability to benefit from it, meaning that the individual in question has a condition that causes him or her to be in less than good health but also that there is a treatment available that can improve their health, whether curative, life-sustaining or enhancing, or merely palliative. While recognising that there may be clinical reasons, such as low levels of cost effectiveness, for denying treatment in the face of limited resources, treatment should never be withheld on moral grounds. |